


aeldws 2020

by boundinshallows (museme87)



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Awkward Conversations, Blood and Gore, Case Fic, Character Death, Established Relationship, Forging (Inception), M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Period-Typical Homophobia, Post-Break Up, Running Away, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:48:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25364887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/museme87/pseuds/boundinshallows
Summary: My drabbles for AELDWS 2020. Warnings provided in the preface to each Drabble. Tags updated as I go.
Relationships: Arthur/Eames (Inception)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 7





	1. carry me (when you go forth)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur has a choice to make, and the stakes are high.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: No backsies  
> Genre: Historical   
> Word Count: Up to 150

Eames looks up sharply from the letter. 

“No.” 

“It is a fair offer,” Arthur says reasonably, watching the flames in the hearth. 

“And us?” 

Arthur avoids his gaze. “She is a good girl. Raised in Paris. The Mileses say there is much to recommend her.” 

Eames cups Arthur’s face, smoothing his thumb over thin lips. 

“I ask you again: and us?” 

There is recognition in Arthur’s dark eyes, as if he knows what Eames suggests. 

“Your father will not abide it,” Arthur warns. “If you cross him again, he will not take you back. You will lose a dukedom, and for what?” 

“For the very air in my lungs, darling.” 

Arthur scoffs, but his cheeks warm. “You are a dreamer.” 

“We will sail away. To the Americas. You can show me where you were born.” Eames leans in, placing a feather-light kiss against Arthur’s forehead. “Just say yes.”


	2. what limbo wrought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur loses two people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Perfect Strangers  
> Genre: Horror  
> Word Count: 250
> 
> Warnings: Major character death, Gore

When he catches himself flipping on the light—the one he’d left on when he’d gone to pick-up their dinner—Arthur reaches for the gun in his ankle holster. He rounds the corner, tightening his grip and taking aim at the figure on the couch. He recognizes her a moment later.

“Mal?”

She stands, turning to face him. It’s then that Arthur catches the thick smear of blood across Mal’s blouse, the bloodied handprint smudged along her jaw.

His heart drops.

“Ah, mon cher. We must go. Dom needs you.”

“Mal,” Arthur says carefully.

“Together we will make him understand, non?”

“Where’s Eames?”

“He said this is real. That I could not take you,” Mal explains. “But he won’t stop us any longer.”

Arthur sprints down the hall to their room. He crawls across the bed, settling over Eames and cradling his ruined face.

Eames is nearly unrecognizable—the gouges deep, parting flesh and cutting to bone. Arthur’s mind swims. His stomach turns viscerally, bile rising hotly in his throat.

He’d just soaked in this beautiful face not a few hours ago—a little ‘afternoon delight,’ Eames had said, all toothy grin and nimble fingers. This beautiful face that belonged to the man that he…

Arthur rounds, eyes wet.

“What the _fuck_ did you do?”

“He cannot forge like that, of course.” She sighs, “Arthur, come.”

“You kill—” Arthur chokes on the word. “Who _are_ you, Mal? What _happened_ to you down there?”

She looks at him pitifully. “But this is all a dream.”


	3. the big sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot of problems on this job, and Eames’ forge is technically one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: “Don’t look back”   
> Genre: Noir  
> Word count: 300

Not for the first time does Arthur look around the small office space—with its wide blinds and creaky leather furniture—and think there’s no fucking way they’re going to pull this one off.

He told Dom as much, but Dom liked the challenge and Mal fell in love with their elderly client and her story. They agreed to take it before Arthur had time to explain every way he foresaw things going horribly wrong.

Dom’s building is good—always has been—but it’s fallen to Arthur to ensure the details are right. Most are fine. The ones that aren’t though? Their elderly, set designer mark will be able to pick out from a mile away.

Arthur paces the room with his moleskine, making a note about the filing cabinet’s brand. When he hears someone clearing their throat behind him, Arthur startles.

He turns to see a woman draped against the doorframe. Her voluminous hair is carefully curled, her make-up impeccably applied. Her dress—a plunging white satin halter gown with a wide, chain belt—is straight out of _Gilda_ , if his memories of Sundays with his grandpa and old Hollywood movies are correct.

It won’t work for this—too obvious—but it’s impressive, nonetheless.

“Kiss me, Mike,” she coos with half-lidded sultry eyes. “I want you to kiss me. The liar’s kiss that says I love you and means something else.”

Arthur grins. “That’s not Hayworth.”

Her sudden pout is all Eames. She walks towards him, curvy hips swaying suggestively.

“I can never get a zipper to close,” she whispers into his ear, bringing his hand to the back of her now-gaping dress. “Maybe that stands for something, what do you think?”

Arthur moves to glance carefully towards the door, but she grabs his jaw and redirects him back to her suddenly blue-gray eyes.

“Don’t look back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eames' opening line--"Kiss me, Mike"--is from the noir film Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and said by Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers). Because Eames is made up like Rita Hayworth, Arthur corrects him, saying Hayworth wasn't in the movie. Eames' second line---"I can never get a zipper to close"--is a quote from Gilda (1946) said by Rita Hayworth's character Gilda Mundson Farrell. 
> 
> Hayworth was a huge Hollywood starlet known for playing femme fatales or slightly promiscuous women (in 1940s standards). One of her images became a very popular pin-up during World War II. I imagine that's what appealed to Eames as he's creating this particular forge for the noir-based job. 
> 
> Also, the title of this drabble is the title of a pretty famous noir film.


	4. hate and heal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They’re never going to complete inception if he and Eames keep butting heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Détente   
> Genre: -  
> Word Count: 100

"I can’t do this hostile workplace shit. Not with so much on the line,” Arthur confesses. “I owe you an apology.” 

“Oh, that’s very generous of you, Arthur. Thank you,” Eames says, all false-graciousness. 

“I’m sorry for leaving. And for never giving you an answer.”

Eames nods. “And I’m sorry for asking.” 

It feels like a knife to the gut, but Arthur knows he has no right to the feeling. 

“It’s not enough, but when this is over and if we survive, I’ll do it properly.” Arthur meets Eames’ guarded look. “But for now.” 

Eames hums his agreement. “For now.”


End file.
